While it’s not quite summer yet,
school vacation, road trips and weekend getaways will be here to interrupt your
training before you know it. Heck, due to a hectic work schedule, many of you
reading this article don’t need summer to have your training interrupted by
travel. It’s a part of your everyday training challenge.

Perhaps one of the most
logistically challenging aspects of training is trying to fit in runs and
workouts around travel, regardless of whether it’s for pleasure or work.
Unfamiliar routes, busy schedules, and weariness from the road can make it
nearly impossible to stick to the optimal training plan.

So, how do you handle training
while traveling?

Rather than providing you with
yet another article on travel tips like finding a treadmill, mapping your
routes and planning ahead — and because there are plenty of resources from
runners with far more travel experience than myself — this article will target
the more holistic aspect of training while traveling. That is, how to take a
long-term view of your workouts and learn to adapt your entire plan and outlook
on training to handle the stress and unpredictability of travel.

One Workout Doesn’t Make or Break A Training Segment
Thanks to the OCD nature that
probably pre-disposes us to be runners, missing a key workout can be extremely
difficult to handle. Even the most experienced runners fret about lost fitness
or missed potential gains when they miss a workout. However, if you’re training
consistently, there is no magic or secret workout that must be done in order to
have success at any race distance.

A former coach of mine, Scott
Simmons, was fond of the saying that a missed workout was a “small drop of
water in your big bucket of fitness.” Meaning, if you think of every workout,
easy day and long run you do as a drop of water that collects in a large
bucket, you can see that once your bucket is filled up with water, the absence
of a single drop isn’t noticeable in the slightest. It has a minuscule impact
on your overall fitness.
This analogy helped me understand
that training isn’t about individual workouts. When you step back and look at
your training from a holistic point of view, you can see that missing one
workout has little impact on your fitness.

So, what does this have to do
with training and travel?

Many runners I work with have
trouble bouncing back after a missed workout. It ruins the rest of their week
as they never get back on track. Some runners try to cram workouts in to make
up for their missed run, which is always the wrong answer. And, some runners
lose complete confidence in their fitness and carry that feeling with them into
race day.

Don’t let missing one workout due
to a long flight or a busy work meeting ruins your entire week of training or
causes you to lose confidence in your fitness. Remember, it’s a small drop of
water in your big bucket of fitness.

Doing Something Is Better Than Doing Nothing
We all want everything to go
perfectly in training. Unfortunately, when traveling sometimes you have to
adapt and do the best with what you’re given. Perhaps you don’t have time to
get in that tempo run you planned or find yourself in a location less than ideal
for 400-meter repeats. Rather than not doing anything, get creative.

Turn your track session into a
fartlek and sprint from telephone pole to telephone poll. Can’t get outside?
Focus instead on injury prevention and does some hip strengthening or core
work. Heck, you don’t even need to get that creative. An easy run is still
better than not running if you have the time. However, even if you’re short on
time, simply taking three minutes to do the five most beneficial hip
strengthening exercises could go a long way toward keeping you healthy
long-tem.

Regardless of what you’re able to
fit in, you can still find some small way to make yourself a better runner each
and every day.

Overtraining Is Also Caused By Lack of Sleep and Recovery
With that said, remember that
overtraining and fatigue are caused by more than just running workouts.

Lack of sleep, travel anxiety,
and trying to cram in workouts can all lead to a greater stress on your body
than you realize. Training does not occur in a vacuum and the stress and lack
of sleep from a busy travel schedule can be just as hard on the body as a week
of difficult workouts.

Schedule yourself some needed
rest and recovery time. Most experienced runners will admit that the cause of
their poor performances was a result of trying to do too much or getting
injured rather than not working hard enough. Remember, no single workout makes
or breaks a training segment. Sometimes, the best way for you to stay healthy
and train to your best is to take some extra rest.

As you get set to travel for work
this week or as your summer travel plans materialize, remember to keep a
holistic view of your training in mind. Be adaptable, focus on the small wins
you can find in training, and don’t fret if training gets off track.